We got up the next day for breakfast which ended at 8:30am so not cool. It was either get up early or miss breakfast. It was an option of sushi or stale bread. Bread it was and then back to bed. We wandered down to the beach about 1.5 miles away which was like a ghost town. I was expecting it to be like beaches in Europe that have cafes and shops everywhere only this beach was just that a beach. Very strange. We went back to the hotel and then out for tea. By t...

We checked out of the Royal Lotus hotel at 7am ready for what would be a very long day! We boarded a boat to take us around Halong Bay for 4 hours which included kayaking. We stopped off at a cave on the way and walked through it. It was beautiful. We then got to the kayak stop and almost got into the kayak when we were told that we couldn't kayak because we only booked the 4 hour trip. This being despite the travel agent telling us we could kayak so we paid th...

We had a lie in (as usual) and spent the day in a happy engagement bubble. We kept forgetting we were engaged so it was nice to keep remembering and reliving that moment that it happened. I will never forget it and how perfect it was. So for the rest of the day we had a swim in the pool, ordered room service and watched films. Everyone is entitled to a lazy day and travelling is no exception.

It's my birthdayyyyy!!! And what a beautiful place to spend it in! We decided to make the day a really chilled one so the day before we booked a couples relax package at the hotel's spa. Mark has never done anything like this before so I was a bit anxious about whether he'll enjoy it or just moan all the way through. He doesn't read this blog as he lives it so won't know I've said that despite it being true. To start the pamper package we had 30 minutes in t...

We checked out of our hotel and set off for our next destination, Halong Bay. It rained that much the night before and apparently all night that the roads were completely flooded (see picture) but everything kept moving, just slower than usual. Unlike the UK, the roads stayed open. We arrived in Halong around 2pm, 2 hours later than expected due to lots of traffic and flooded roads. We got dropped off by the minibus, a 10 minute walk away from the hotel and gue...